Painting December: Talos Completed!

Probably should have waited and called this post “Day of the Talos”. Ah well. Done now.

Aside from my agonising over how to get the verdigris done, the model was quite an easy and low-stress paintjob. Certainly the painting was much more pleasant than the assembly, which destroyed 2 drill bits.

In the end I went for a direct inspiration from Ray Harryhausen’s Talos from Jason and the Argonauts (1963) regarding the dead, dark eye sockets as well as (and more importantly) the weathering and verdigris, though mine is more “gold-brass” than the “copper-brass” of the film.

The colourful shield adds a spot of interest to the base, as do the flowers and the reddish wood of the spear. The freehand dolphin design is based on images of Greek shields, and provided me with something fun to add to the model, since it’s the sort of thing I really enjoy doing. I considered adding some damage to the paintwork, but decided against it. Naturally, I didn’t notice the errant hair when I took these photos. Luckily, it’s not stuck to anything. I’ll have to fix the small tide mark on the bronze shield, though.

The discarded helmet, shields and spear were chosen to add a sense of scale to the figure without being too specific in the same way that a crushed orc or Greek would have been. The wargear could have been left by friendlies, opponents or might even be a messy offering to the gods. This model might end up being used as scenery occasionally, what with being a gigantic bronze statue…

Finally, a scale shot. This model is easily the largest miniature I’ve ever painted. I really need to get more of my impressive centrepiece models done in the coming years. When used in KoW which uses square bases, I found that the giant 100mm round base fits neatly into a movement tray, so I’ll just park it in there when I need to.

…and yes. I just ordered a bunch of Argonauts from Foundry this evening!

Thanks guys. It went through some points where I wasn’t sure about he weathering but in the end I’m quite happy with it, and I really appreciate the confirmation. Now onto the other two, and if I can get them finished, I’ll add another for December. 🙂

Nice work, the result is spot on in my view. I watched a BBC documentary on Harryhausen the other night, so all of this couldn’t be more timely to make me want to start some ancient mythological gaming myself.

Thanks mate. A year on now (I somehow missed your comment!) and it fits well into KoW Historical. I’ve heard mixed reviews about Of Gods and Heroes, but it would also fit that quite well if I manage to start on it.

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